Vail Daily letter: California, here we come

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I'm normally an optimistic person, but the recent presidential election has made me feel like the fate of our nation is all but sealed. With the Democrats again in charge of too much of our government, it's hard to feel very optimistic for what lies ahead. All one has to do is take a good look at California to see what happens when the Democrats are in control. In the once-golden state, things are going from bad to worse. After years of reckless spending, cushy government jobs and entitlements and tidal waves of illegal immigration, almost everything there is deteriorating. A number of cities have already filed for bankruptcy, and in many more, years of fiscal irresponsibility have forced the closure of libraries, parks, community centers and the layoffs of police and fire personnel, as well as many other civil servants. With many urban areas deteriorating and fewer police patrolling the streets, violent gangs are dominant in places and crime is rampant.

On top of this, due to a brutal and worsening tax environment, there has been an exodus of successful Californians, many of them the very people that started businesses there.

Democrats like to claim that they are champions of the middle class, but any casual analysis of what's happening in California tells a very different tale. Here, the middle class is being wiped out and replaced by the very wealthy and a burgeoning mass of people dependent on government aid.

The liberal agenda of punishing success and redistributing the wealth to a growing dependent class is simply resulting in many successful people leaving. Sound familiar? It's happening across Europe too, after many years of liberals running those countries and driving their economies into the ditch. And yet in places like Athens, despite the economy being in shambles, people are still rioting, still demanding their free stuff from the government. As Margaret Thatcher so eloquently stated, "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

The takeaway from what's happened in California is that Obama is nationalizing many of the same failed policies that have devastated California. It will soon be coming to a city or town near you. The full implementation of Obamacare will only add to the downward spiral.

About the only numbers Obama has driven up in four years are the unemployment rate and number of food stamp recipients.

For all the people out there who voted for and think that Obama is going to fix our economy and make their lives better, good luck with that! I would suggest you take off the blinders and put down the Kool-Aid.